Magnolias – Spring Beauties.

…Magnolias are trees or shrubs with astonishing goblet- or star-shaped flowers that are admired icons of spring and summer.

Magnolias are much valued throughout the world for their beautiful flowers and forms. Growing as large shrubs or trees, they produce showy, fragrant flowers that are white, pink, red, purple or yellow. Some forms are evergreen with glossy and leathery leaves and some evergreen types have buds, stems and undersides of leaves that are covered with attractive gold to copper to brown felt-like hairs. There are more than 200 species of Magnolia native to temperate, subtropical and tropical areas of south-eastern Asia, eastern North America, Central America, the Caribbean and parts of South America.

Magnolias prefer a spot in the garden that receives full sun to light shade. If, however you are lucky enough to have a real sun-trap garden, your magnolia might benefit from a location shaded from the hot afternoon sun. If possible, avoid exposed, windy locations because fierce winds can damage large flowers and the typically brittle branches.

Most magnolias grow best in moist, well-drained, slightly acid soils but neutral to slightly alkaline soils are also suitable for growth. Magnolias are adaptable to all but wet or poorly drained soils. Well-established plants can be moderately drought tolerant.

Deciduous magnolias (those that drop their leaves in autumn) are best planted when dormant, typically in late autumn, or early spring. Evergreen magnolias are best planted in early spring. For the first 6 to 12 months after planting, both types will benefit from mulch and regular irrigation during warm or dry weather.

Deciduous magnolias usually flower in spring before the leaves emerge. Magnolia grandiflora, the most commonly grown evergreen, flowers in flushes from summer until early autumn. In warm summers these can be followed by striking knobbly seedpods from which bright red seeds emerge in autumn.